Apache Junction's gymnasium in January is evacuated during a girls basketball game that got more chippy in the stands. The only spectators left are Scottsdale Coronado's junior-varsity players, who are instructed not to cheer.

They have to stay because the varsity team is their ride home. After Coronado pulls out a close win, the girls are escorted by Apache Junction security to their bus. Apache Junction Athletic Director Tina Harshman confirmed first-year Coronado coach Jamie Fellows' account.

"I had never seen anything like it before," Fellows says.

In December at Phoenix Arcadia, after Glendale Deer Valley's boys basketball team rallies for an eight-point win, Arcadia students storm the court with what Deer Valley coach Jed Dunn describes as "a beeline directly toward our (handshake) line." A bottle, Dunn says, is thrown into the crowd.

"Some of the things the fans were saying to our kids was disgusting," Dunn says.

When informed of this scene by azcentral sports, Arcadia Principal Todd Stevens said in an email, "Arcadia believes in good sportsmanship both on and off the field, and we have high expectations not only of our athletes, but our spectators."

Stevens says a verbal altercation occurred after the game and nobody was injured, but police broke up the crowd "to keep the situation from escalating." Arcadia disciplined the students involved and met with the student spirit club leaders to discuss good sportsmanship.

It's not just during the heat of the playoff race that emotions rise to a dangerous level.

In Phoenix Shadow Mountain boys basketball team's season opener at Tempe, the game had to be momentarily stopped in the second half by security to calm upset fans in the stands.

But so many good examples are being drowned out by the bad and the ugly that have been exhibited in sports, kids mimicking professional and college athletes gone out of control.

Since the 2017-18 school year began, there have been more than 800 athlete ejections in all of the fall and winter sports. Soccer has nearly half of those ejections. There have been nearly 50 coach ejections for all sports.

The number of ejections is an increase of more than 60 from last year's total over the school year, and it hasn't even gotten into the spring sports seasons.

Since Brian Gessner, the son of a colonel, took over from retired Gary Whelchel as the AIA's commissioner of officials in January, he has been collecting and cataloguing every officials' incidents and ejections reports. He has informed officials to be more aware and have a shorter leash in order to keep emotions from getting out of hand.

"We have to do a better job as officials to see that coming and prevent that," Gessner said.

Because there have been so many ejections in soccer this season, referees no longer are part of the sport's traditional postgame handshake line in order to protect them from coaches and players, and sometimes parents, who have crossed the line of abuse.

"Until we can clean that up and really start elevating sportsmanship again, this doesn't make sense," Gessner said. "I love tradition. They resisted at first, then they said we get why you're doing it."

Gessner is trying to figure ways to curtail what is becoming an out-of-control high school sports landscape.

CLOSE

Shadow Mountain had only four healthy players for a girls basketball game. So Cactus Shadows decided to play just of its players in a display of sportsmanship.

"The ejections in soccer are outrageous," Gessner said.

Years ago, the AIA mandated that anybody ejected from a game has to serve an automatic next-game suspension.

Should there be more? Should other forms of punishment be applied?

"I know the rule just recently changed, but it really is a way for the players to realize they should show respect for the officials, whether they win or lose, and shake their hands," Mesa boys soccer coach T.J. Hagen said. "I'm sure I'm not the only coach who has felt this way. There are always games throughout the season I'd like to have a few words with the referees after the game. But I always make sure to shake their hands. That is showing my players to respect the officials and showing good sportsmanship."

Technicals and red cards are adding up. Trash talking is everywhere, sometimes starting on social media and carrying over into games.

And how are crowds controlled? How much more security is needed to keep from something like at Arcadia from happening again?

"It's not college and it's not the pros," Gessner said. "Other values come together. There are other things that you learn."

Good sports

It's not all ugly out there.

– During Mesa Desert Ridge's boys basketball Senior Night against Tempe Corona del Sol, Desert Ridge senior Griffin Lynch, elevated from team manager the first three years to a roster player this season, got physically cleared to play in a game.

A staged tip got the ball to Lynch, who scored the game's first basket, a corner elbow shot on his first attempt. He left shortly after that to a standing ovation. Corona del Sol lost in overtime, but coach Neil MaDonald will only remember the game for the moment it gave Lynch, the son of former Mesa High basketball coach Shawn Lynch.

"I gave Grif the scorebook before the game, and when he saw his name in the starting lineup, he was ready to go," Desert Ridge coach Greg Ream said. "His name was announced last, and the crowd went crazy. I saw such happiness in Grif's eyes. The team was super excited for Grif. They have such respect for him that a couple of seniors that usually start volunteered to let Grif start in their spot."

– During a freshman girls basketball game at Phoenix Shadow Mountain against Cave Creek Cactus Shadows, Shadow Mountain had only four available players. The Cactus Shadows coach, who had 12, agreed to play only four during the game to give Shadow Mountain a fair shake. Cactus Shadows won, but nobody cared about the score. A lesson was taught.

– On senior night for the girls basketball team at Tucson Pueblo, coach Ismael Galindo started a tradition that began after a bad experience at an opponent's senior night during his second year as a head coach. He said he was asked by the home team to keep his players in the locker room while they conducted their senior night with players and parents introduced.

"That night, I decided to present the opposing seniors a rose on our senior night after our seniors' presentation," Galindo said. "So for the past four years, not only our own seniors but the opposing team's seniors are part of our senior night."

– Scottsdale Desert Mountain boys basketball coach Mark Schumaker will mostly remember this season for Adam Vjestica's special night on the court during a JV game.

"He is the biggest fan of Desert Mountain basketball and is loved by the whole school," Schumaker said. "He suits up for every JV game, practices with us and also does lifting. He has never gotten in an actual game before. We played Horizon, and their coaching staff was gracious enough to let him play the last four minutes of the fourth quarter running clock. He got two steals, scored eight points. Every time he missed, Horizon would return the ball back to him to shoot again."

Reeling it in

There is winning with dignity and winning with arrogance, and the dialogue is never-ending.

How do you reel it in?

How do you keep teams from rubbing it in on an opponent?

How do you make everybody involved a good sport?

"That's a tall order," Chandler Seton Catholic girls basketball coach Karen Self said. "The ones that get it don't need this conversation, and the ones that need it, will never get it."

David Hines, executive director of the AIA, says he is trying to get the message of "victory with honor" back on track. It's why officials are being told to be on high alert. He says that more ejections were expected this year because officials are being more involved in curtailing potential ugly situations.

"It's still a piece of what we did, but not in the forefront as much as it should be," Hines said about the creed. "It needs to be talked to with officials, coaches and kids, that it's a priority.